Jon Heder

Born in Fort Collins, CO on Oct. 26, 1977, Jonathan Joseph Heder was reared in Salem, OR since age two. Raised in a Mormon household that fostered an innocent and wholesome outlook on life, Heder attended Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. There, he met future director Jared Hess and future producer Jeremy Coon, whom he would later work with on "Napoleon Dynamite." Though Heder started off in BYU's film program, he later switched to computer animation, eventually earning his BFA in 1999. In 2003, his old friend Hess began casting his short film, "Peluca" (2003), a nine-minute comedy about a geeky outcast named Seth who is obsessed with ninja books, unicorns and fanny packs. Frustr... Continue Bio >>